I absolutely love my Lotus Elise. I bought it with the
intention of going everywhere with it, and it would be my one and only car.
Three months in, and I realise that - because I love the Lotus - I need to get
a second car.
It’s not a question of “can you daily drive your Lotus
Elise / can you drive your Lotus Elise anywhere?” (For me, the answer to both is YES); it’s more a question of “do
you want to take you cherished car somewhere where there’s no decent parking (perhaps
you’ve got to park at the side of the road)?” and “do you want your cherished car
pelted by salt and grit / do you want to take the risk in icy conditions?”
Not everyone will be faced with the above problems. My
work can send me many places, so I don’t have the luxury of always knowing that
my destination is going to have good parking or not. And I have no control on
the weather (when I came back from Heathrow, I had to drive past the grit
spreading lorry on the M4; it didn’t do the car any harm, but made me think
whether I want to put the Elise through that often.)
So, I’m getting a second car. First I had to find
something. On Thursday, I popped down to “Prestige Cars by Peter Cooper”.
The first car I looked at was a Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo Edition, and it felt
horrible, a horrible wobbly blancmange of a car. In fairness, anything is a bit
blancmange-like when you’ve come out of the Lotus Elise (which might well be
the best drivers’ car in the world), but the Skoda Fabia was way too blancmange-y
for my liking. Then the salesman suggested I try their SEAT Ibiza 1.2 TSI FR
Black Edition, and I really liked it, but had some homework to do (it’s a car I’d
considered previously around the time I purchased my Audi A1 - I wanted to do
some research before committing.)
Image: SEAT Ibiza
1.2 TSI FR Black Edition
The road trip to Hedge End was just over 40 miles down
the A34, M3, and M27. There and back around 80 miles.
So, I thought I’d see if the Skoda Fabia vRS felt any less blancmange-y. On
Friday, I popped across to Motortech
to check out a Skoda Fabia vRS they had, and it felt blancmange-y too, so that
completely killed any thoughts of getting a Skoda Fabia. The car is very boxy
but I could have lived with its looks if it had been a good drive (like in that
line from the movie ‘Crazy People’ “it’s boxy but it’s good” - I thought the Fabia
vRS was not good!)
Image: Skoda Fabia
vRS (blancmange-y)
The road trip to Motortech was around 60 miles, and
mostly M4.
On Thursday, the spanner / wrench light appeared on my
Lotus Elise. The manual says “Electrical Fault Tell Tale: The Engine
Control Module (ECM) is also used to manage to manage various related electrical
systems, and is able to detect certain types of fault, which may or may not be
apparent to the driver. If such a fault is detected, which has no detrimental
effect on exhaust emissions (see MIL tell-tale information) this tell-tale will
light for the first 30 seconds after turning on the ignition. Consult your
dealer without delay to have the fault diagnosed and rectified.” Motortech
is only about 10 miles from Williams
Automobiles, so I called up, asked if they could check the fault, and they
very kindly obliged.
Williams Automobiles is a really nice Lotus, Morgan, and
Caterham dealer. It was the first time I’d visited, and I was very impressed
with their service and premises. I’d spoken to Henry Williams at the Lotus
Festival back in September, and wanted an excuse to visit. I’ll be using them
for my yearly/9000-mile service (Cwmbran Motors is great but a bit of a trek for
me.) And the fault turned out to be a faulty HVAC sensor. The error was cleared
but will probably come back; Williams will do some more diagnosis so we can fix
in the future.
Whilst I was at the Lotus dealer, I phoned up to buy the
SEAT Ibiza, but I’d been beaten to it by a caller from Birmingham later on
Thursday - never mind, sometimes these things happen.
The road trip back was around 60 miles, again mostly M4.
Whilst I was driving back, I had 3 calls from Southampton
on my phone, but I don’t have hands-free in the Lotus, so I didn’t answer (nor
do I want hands-free, calls can always wait, and a lot of companies these days
quite rightly prohibit taking phone calls whilst driving.) When I’d got home, I
had another call from Southampton, and due to some technicalities I was now in
pole position to purchase the SEAT Ibiza, so I did.
My Lotus Elise’s odometer is now over 3600 miles.
Just over 3 months and 3500+ miles in, and my feeling is
that the Lotus Elise is just the most fantastic car - the best car in the world
- I love it (which is why I’m getting a second car - to protect it)!
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